Southern Hemisphere citrus specialist San Miguel hopes to expand its presence in China’s online market after signing up to the Strategic Global Fruit Alliance, the new initiative from Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com to boost its fruit and vegetable sales in the country.
San Miguel joins 18 other leading global fruit suppliers including Zespri, Capespan, Driscoll’s and Wonderful Citrus in an alliance, which aims to increase cooperation in areas such as packaging, product innovation and finding new sales channels.
Speaking at the presentation of the new venture at this month’s Asia Fruit Logistica, Wu Zhengzhi, general marketing manager of Jingdong Mall Fresh Food Division, said it was a win-win concept, helping its partners to explore the Chinese market and encourage Chinese consumers to eat better.
San Miguel’s commercial manager, Andrés Haloua, said: “This alliance will bring us even closer to our customers and enables us to deliver even better fruit to the Chinese consumer.
“Being able to rely on JD.com’s experience in this sector will help us to meet the needs of a market that is of great importance to us.
The citrus company added that it worked every day to offer its customers quality products, through more and better channels that respond to the needs of the market.
According to figures from JD.com, its sales of imported fruit in China have risen steadily, jumping from 20 per cent of total sales in 2016 to 45 per cent in 2017. This year they could reach 65 per cent, the company said, with avocados, grapes, oranges, berries and cherries among the most popular fruits bought online.
